In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, for example, photolithography processing is performed, for example, on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”) to form a predetermined resist pattern on the wafer.
When forming the above-described resist pattern, miniaturization of the resist pattern is required in order for higher integration of the semiconductor device. Generally, the limit of miniaturization in the photolithography processing is about the wavelength of light used in exposure processing. Therefore, conventionally, the wavelength of light for use in the exposure processing has been increasingly reduced. However, there are technical and cost limits in reducing the wavelength of an exposure light source, and it is now difficult to form a fine resist pattern at a level of, for example, several nanometers only by the method of increasingly reducing the wavelength of light.
Hence, recently, it is proposed to form a fine resist pattern on the wafer using a so-called imprint method instead of performing photolithography processing on the wafer. This method is to bring a template (referred also to as a mold or a die) having a fine pattern on its front surface into press contact with the resist surface formed on the wafer and then peel off the template to thereby directly transfer the pattern to the resist surface (Patent Document 1).